tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77487170961270697652018-03-07T10:02:01.257-08:00The Fantasy GameThomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-82377242574089593882013-03-03T23:29:00.001-08:002013-03-03T23:29:48.021-08:00It's been a long time......since I last wrote anything in this blog. I had (and still have) a blast focussing on another passion - <a href="http://www.ancientdomainsofmystery.com/">Ancient Domains Of Mystery (ADOM)</a>. Nonetheless <i>The Fantasy Game</i> keeps popping to the forefront of my mind while dabbling with the planned RPG rules for ADOM and the impending release of D&amp;D 5th edition also resparked my interested in old school gaming.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>I have started rereading many of my older posts and in some cases I'm no longer sure I agree with my initial design decisions, namely:<br /><br /><ul><li>to use the original class names. I have started to hate "fighting-men" (where does it leave woman?) and will user "fighters" instead. "Magic-users" IMHO as a name also is too unwieldy and will be replaced by "wizards". Clerics will remain.</li><li><a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/06/fantasy-game-d6-only-game.html">to use nothing but d6</a>. These days I no longer feel that a simple reproduction of an older game has enough merit, particularly <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/45390000">with WotC even rereleasing the old White Box set</a>. If I had been faster with TFG a orderly reproduction with some redesigns might have been enough, nowadays I feel more compelled trying to meld the very original designs with some more streamlined designs. And rolling d20 for speed is one of the things that by now seems more reasonable to me.</li><li><a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/06/ability-tests-in-od.html">to be totally freeform and omitting any kind of skill system</a>. These days I'm more than ever convinced that having but three classes (fighters, wizards, clerics) is the right way to go (especially leaving out thieves). But I'd like to be able to provide a trivial rule for specializations - and thus something akin to "choose one skill per level" is more what I think about right now... skills being anything from Tracking over Carpentry to Hiding in Shadows. Additionally some subset of everyman skills (climbing, swimming, riding, ...) would be selectable in the beginning. All skill checks would rely on attributes (something like full attribute, if you know the skill, half attribute if you don't but it's a common skill and zero chance of success if you don't have a skill that requires learning). Skill lists still would be freeform. I just feel that this addition allows for much greater customization of characters and completely gets rid of the need of more and more classes - something usually reviled by initial OSR releases but then trumped by later releases and their formidable successes (take e.g. <a href="http://goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html">Labyrinth Lord</a> and the splendid <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/daniel-proctor/advanced-edition-companion-perfect-bound/paperback/product-15061719.html">Advanced Edition Companion</a>).</li><li>to keep races as classes. Another thing that started to irk me once I began rolling a few characters. I want to have the separation as it allows for more interesting character concepts and I never understood why there were no clerics with dwarves, elves or halflings. So class and race will be separated in the Fantasy Game. There is another idea I'm fiddling with related to this: Basically I want initial hit dice to be determined by class and race, finally providing a very clea solution to "zero level characters". Example: Just imagine a basic human (1 hit die). He decides to pick up the trade of "Fighter" (which will add 1d+2 to his hit dice). So the basic first level human fighter will have 2d+2 hit dice. Now take a first level human wizard. The first wizard level will add nothing to hit dice, so our sample wizard begins with 1d hit dice. And now for the fun part: Take an orc (1 hit die). If the orc is specially trained (e.g. the black guard of the orc king) and picks up a fighter level, he now has 2d+2 hit dice. Similar for an ogre, untrained: 4d+1 hit dice, trained as (e.g.) a third level fighter: 7d+7 hit dice (adding 3d+6 for third level fighter). This suddenly trivializes <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/reading-od-from-cover-to-cover-races.html">picking other races as player races</a> as you basically can omit racial descriptions for players and just select a suitable 1 hit die race from the monster manual (and if you lose a character in a group averaging fourth level, you might consider negotiating to play an ogre, if your GM will allow it).</li><li>to clean up the combat systems. The chaos invoked by three different combat systems really explains the origin of Tunnels &amp; Trolls. And I wouldn't want so much chaos and special cases. Instead hit dice will be the main driver behind combat with the follow basic idea: (a) Every being has a minimum of one attack. You can attack as many hit dice in monsters per round as you have hit dice. A 6d+12 fighter thus could attack 6 hit dice of monsters (e.g. six ores, 2 orcs and an ogre, 3 gnolls or whatever combination has a maximum of 6 hit dice). Some monsters will receive extra attacks (e.g. a five-headed hydra might have 5 hit dice and&nbsp;+5 attacks per round, meaning that they first determine their number of attacks by hit dice [e.g. they can attack five basic humans or orcs] and then add another 5 attacks - woe to a village attacked by a hydra). Damage will remain fixed at 1d6 for most beings. Your hit-bonus is equal to your hit dice (e.g. a sixth level fighter gets a&nbsp;+7 bonus - +1 for being a one hit die human and&nbsp;+6 for the hit dice of the fighter class). I'm still pondering whether to move armor class up by one (yes, I'm going to use ascending armor class - no need to follow a more complicated tradition here) so that 11 is the basic unarmored armor class or just wave the 5% difference this will cause.</li></ul><div>So much for now... this probably will move <i>The Fantasy Game</i> away a bit from being a pure OD&amp;D reproduction but the need for that seems to have lessened in the past months.</div><div><br /></div><div>To design a better and leaner <i>D&amp;D Next</i> seems to be intellectually more interesting - especially in basing it on nothing but OD&amp;D :-) Even the Ryth Chronicles close their final document (#10) with the comment that OD&amp;D seemed to be too limiting. So if OD&amp;D had outlived its usefulness in 1977 for some strong supporters, that's ample reason to try to be better.</div>Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-70253773757589711702011-12-31T06:34:00.000-08:002011-12-31T06:34:27.235-08:00Have a great 2012While all activity on this blog ceased suddenly and unexpectedly <a href="http://www.biskup.net/blog/2011/12/31/2011-in-review-2012-ahead/">the reasons for it where sound in retrospective</a>. I wish you all a happy and great 2012 and I promise: I'll be back at some point!Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-81088188448394469722011-07-13T22:13:00.000-07:002011-07-13T22:13:06.675-07:00More Ryth goodness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UpFw6gwvC3Q/Th561GIvpII/AAAAAAAAAPA/LXCGx8AFcUM/s1600/Ryth10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UpFw6gwvC3Q/Th561GIvpII/AAAAAAAAAPA/LXCGx8AFcUM/s200/Ryth10.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>At <a href="http://www.risusmonkey.com/">Risus Monkey</a> the findings about The Ryth Chronicle continue: <a href="http://www.risusmonkey.com/2011/07/ryth-chronicle-number-10.html">An installment #10 (the final one ending the Chronicle) has been uncovered</a> and posted. <a href="http://www.velvet-edge.com/Ryth10.pdf">Grab it</a> and read it - great stuff! Additional <a href="http://sandboxempire.blogspot.com/">Kesher at the Sandbox Empire</a> has started to read the Ryth Chronicle from cover to cover. Here you can find <a href="http://sandboxempire.blogspot.com/2011/07/ryth-chronicle-cover-to-cover-1.html">the first post about it</a> - again great stuff! Finally Risus Monkey started <a href="http://www.risusmonkey.com/2011/07/ryth-q.html">a Q&amp;A for the Ryth Chronicle</a> which is <a href="http://www.risusmonkey.com/2011/07/ryth-q.html">yet more cool stuff</a>. Both have been added to the <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/p/references.html">reference section for TFG</a>. I totally enjoy these glimpses into the very early days as they IMHO contain a raw strength that I never found in the ancient retellings of happenings in Greyhawk and Blackmoor... probably due to the fact that I am able to see the stats of the characters, their items and get pretty detailed campaign accounts. Marvelous!Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-38193723657279457922011-07-13T21:56:00.000-07:002011-07-13T21:56:42.623-07:00Getting sidetracked... now the other way round...Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know the reasons behind the sudden silence over here at <i>The Fantasy Game</i>: I'm known for having too many hobby interests :-)<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>While I never found it difficult to focus my professional work efforts I always have been interested in way too much stuff as I blogged on my personal blog (<a href="http://www.biskup.net/blog/2011/04/06/getting-sidetracked-an-introspection/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.biskup.net/blog/2011/05/03/getting-sidetracked-while-being-sidetracked/">here</a>). Now this has happened to The Fantasy Game. During my last vacation at the beginning of June my interest (nay, my old love) for <a href="http://www.adom.de/">ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)</a> and its planned successor <a href="http://www.ancientdomainsofmystery.com/">JADE (Java-based Ancient Domains Engine)</a> have been <a href="http://www.adom.de/blog/2011/06/11/jade-start-tiny-instead-of-small/">rekindled</a>. ADOM is a so-called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike">roguelike game</a> that I developed during the nineties gaining a huge followership during the heyday of Usenet and the early days of Internet. Since 2000 it has languished pretty much as I had less and less time for the game. The successor to ADOM - JADE - has been planned for about 12 years and in June I finally pulled my stuff together and <a href="http://www.adom.de/blog/2011/06/26/jade-is-coming/">finished everything required for a very first alpha release</a>. Now JADE is out and I have spent every free minute of the past weeks improving it and reaping the rewards of the tough infrastructure efforts that go with an initial game release.<br /><br />So there you have it. The Fantasy Game is definitely not dead but as you will have noticed it's taking kind of a pause. I'll try to pick up speed slowly again but I expect to be posting pretty little over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned and thanks for your understanding!Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-3881777664179723892011-06-24T15:37:00.000-07:002011-06-24T15:37:19.907-07:00Primordial OD&D: A Chainmail fantasy simulacrum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q9NhV5pxdSA/TgURg9CmSLI/AAAAAAAAAOM/nsGXvp_iNxc/s1600/002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q9NhV5pxdSA/TgURg9CmSLI/AAAAAAAAAOM/nsGXvp_iNxc/s200/002.JPG" width="190" /></a></div><a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/06/fantasy-game-d6-only-game.html?showComment=1308764508662#comment-c2040193864529346553">Alan Kesher provided links</a> to work he started on a kind of primordial OD&amp;D. Or as he more appropriately phrased it: <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/scribbledehobble/Home/fantasy-supplement-simulacrum">a Chainmail Fantasy Supplement simulacrum</a>. Although it's not complete I find this fascinating stuff that I directly added to <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/p/references.html">the references section of 'The Fantasy Game'</a> and will also study over the next weeks.<br /><br />Enjoy!Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-10113943868306482282011-06-22T06:56:00.000-07:002011-06-22T07:07:12.981-07:00The Ryth Chronicle: A fan-based setting as important as Greyhawk or Blackmoor?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sSPLIHvlfDY/TgH0VHEXyDI/AAAAAAAAAOI/IezER10uMqo/s1600/Rythlondar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sSPLIHvlfDY/TgH0VHEXyDI/AAAAAAAAAOI/IezER10uMqo/s200/Rythlondar.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>Today marks yet another great day in OSR research: ... over at <a href="http://www.risusmonkey.com/2011/06/ryth-chronicle-1975-1977.html">Risus Monkey</a> posted <a href="http://www.velvet-edge.com/Rythlondar.pdf">the PDF scans of the Ryth Chronicle</a>, an 80 page document stemming from the very early days of our hobby, written on a typewriter around 1975-1977 in order to introduce new players into the campaign.<br /><a name='more'></a>The original authors - John Van De Graaf and Len Scensny - had exactly the experience I am trying to simulate with 'The Fantasy Game': They stumbled upon the original rules, were absolutely fascinated, couldn't make sense of many things, telephoned with Gary Gygax to get things explained and made up their customized version of the game. The PDF documents mirrors the results and I have immediately added it to the <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/p/references.html">reference section of 'The Fantasy Game'</a> as it probably will provide some great insights into the way D&amp;D was played in the early days.<br /><br />What I found even more interesting is that the Ryth Chronicle actually has a much more intense history than one might expect from the Risus Monkey post: <a href="http://sandboxofdoom.blogspot.com/2009/04/beginnings-and-endings.html">This post in the Sandbox of Doom</a>&nbsp;also mentions it and I quote:<br /><blockquote><i>[...] a side-effect of digging out the old Traveller stuff was finding a bunch of old fanzines, including a fairly complete run of Ryth Chronicle, edited by John Van De Graaf (John, you out there?). Ryth Chronicle got a mention in an early Strategic Review, so it is notable for being one of the earlier non-APA RPG gaming 'zines. One of the more interesting finds in Ryth Chronicle was a chart showing characters in the campaign, both dead and alive, along with XP, number of sessions, etc. [...]</i></blockquote>So the Ryth Chronicle seems to be a kind of "fanzine based Greyhawk or Blackmoor of the early days" as far as I can see from these utterances. I now wonder: Does anyone have access to these old fanzines and might be able to scan them in order to be able to see how the Ryth Chronicle influenced our hobby in those early days?<br /><br />I'm now off to read the Ryth Chronicles :-)Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-85060535612870225532011-06-20T10:44:00.000-07:002011-06-20T10:44:15.961-07:00The Fantasy Game: A d6 only game?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rgS91CVHDvY/Tf-G0_OGUAI/AAAAAAAAAN0/-MRgQ6XsSBo/s1600/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rgS91CVHDvY/Tf-G0_OGUAI/AAAAAAAAAN0/-MRgQ6XsSBo/s1600/003.jpg" /></a></div>The past couple of days I have been a bit silent, studying <a href="http://feysquare.com/?page_id=84">"The Big Brown Book"</a> (also newly added to <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/p/references.html">the reference section</a>), <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/ep%C3%A9es-sorcelerie-%28english-translation%29/16003595">"Epées &amp; Sorcellerie RPG"</a>, <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/using-chainmail-to-resolve-odd-combats---booklet/12186793">"Using CHAINMAIL to resolve OD&amp;D combat"</a> and <a href="http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/Forbidden_Lore.pdf">"Forbidden Lore"</a>. I mentioned it a couple of times and now I am sure concerning the use of dice in 'The Fantasy Game'.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>'The Fantasy Game' will definitely only use six sided dice. Still there will be some differences to existing OSR variants, clones, etc. which also went in that direction:<br /><ul><li>Saving throws will be retooled to use "3d6, roll under" to bring them into line with <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/06/ability-tests-in-od.html">the ability tests planned for 'The Fantasy Game'</a>. This IMHO is a much better approach than introducing a d66 variant as in&nbsp;<a href="http://feysquare.com/?page_id=84">"The Big Brown Book"</a>.</li><li>I will use all three combat systems from Chainmail plus the jousting rules, but arrange them more clearly. The classic mass combat rules of Chainmail will be used for <i>melees</i>, e.g. fights one against many. The classic man to man combat system will be used for <i>duels</i>, e.g. fights one on one. And finally the fantasy combat system will be used as an exception to this for some very powerful and fantastic creatures, e.g. <i>mythical battles</i>. The latter will have an option to go "all out" where a single roll can decide between life and death (like in Chainmail) or be used as a standard system with damage dice if you don't choose to go "all out". Finally missile combat will retain its deadliness (see the various articles above - I will elaborate in later posts) as this IMHO nicely keeps the mortality of heroes a thing of significance.</li><li>Ability ranges will keep their 3-18 range. I don't see any reason to narrow this down to 2-12 as in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/ep%C3%A9es-sorcelerie-%28english-translation%29/16003595">"Epées &amp; Sorcellerie RPG"</a>.</li><li>Probably more... I need to get into more details for that ;-)</li></ul>In any case to me it seems very natural trying to get by with only six sided dice when trying to simulate the early days. For many people it must have been extremely difficult to get their hands on funky dice like d4, d8, d12, etc. I still today find it difficult to e.g. get all the dice for <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/5070preview.html">the DCC RPG</a> and <a href="http://www.fanen.com/">my local RPG shop (The Fantasy En'Counter)</a> is really well stocked as far as RPG materials go. Remembering my childhood days we had to travel about three hours by train (which then was pretty expensive for us) to get to the nearest RPH shop (in a pretty far away town then) - so we managed to travel there about once a year or so. And that was around 1985. I can't imagine how hard it must have been to find such gaming dice in 1975 except by total luck. Thus it seems very natural to use only d6. And thus it has been decided.<br /><br />So I am right now busy reading the various rules concerning the combat systems, thinking about them, etc. Thus not much actual writing gets done but that OTOH is IMHO a very necessary phase in any rules design. I also need to do a detailed comparison with Chainmail itself to find my own interpretations. All this takes some time and thus posting will slow down a bit.<br /><br />Next will be my thoughts about the revised saving throw system.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-59848130470543912372011-06-13T08:43:00.000-07:002011-06-13T08:43:28.063-07:00Epées & Sorcellerie RPG now available<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OM_7C7EwyQs/TfYv_SuarVI/AAAAAAAAANs/A4FijAW93So/s1600/E%2526S+Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="60" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OM_7C7EwyQs/TfYv_SuarVI/AAAAAAAAANs/A4FijAW93So/s200/E%2526S+Logo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Picking up <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/06/new-reference-material-added-forbidden.html?showComment=1307532530038#comment-c8971937970597293849">Nicolas Dessaux' recent comment</a> about the extended reference section of 'The Fantasy Game' I just wanted to point to the most recent post at There's Dungeons Down Under: <a href="http://theresdungeonsdownunder.blogspot.com/2011/06/get-epees-sorcellerie-rpg-for-free.html">the&nbsp;Epées &amp; Sorcellerie RPG now is available</a> as a <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/file-download/ep%C3%A9es-sorcelerie-%28english-translation%29/16003595">free download</a> from Lulu as well as a <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/ep%C3%A9es-sorcelerie-(english-translation)/16003594">print edition</a>. I already added the print edition to my shopping cart &nbsp;but now need to find some more new releases that make the shipping costs worthwhile. Suggestions welcome ;-) Naturally I also added it to the <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/p/references.html">references section for 'The Fantasy Game'</a> in order to see which inspiration might be derived from it. I'll probably post an opinion about the game soon, too.<br />(BTW: What font is that in the logo? Love it!)Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-37465510263324214382011-06-09T03:56:00.000-07:002011-06-10T03:03:12.738-07:00Opinions about the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG beta release<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vP947FZxRuc/TfCa0ualUZI/AAAAAAAAANo/dooLqYxO1Dw/s1600/DCCRPGBetaCoverLarge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vP947FZxRuc/TfCa0ualUZI/AAAAAAAAANo/dooLqYxO1Dw/s200/DCCRPGBetaCoverLarge.jpg" width="154" /></a></div>Now that everyone is talking about <a href="http://www.goodman-games.com/DCCRPGbeta.html">the beta release of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG</a> from Goodman Games I felt the need to chime in, too, as I love to look at their upcoming product from a designers and a players point of view. I will try to comment it after a casual glance. My viewpoint will be very strongly 'The Fantasy Game' based as DCC RPG seems to take a similar philosophical viewpoint for its design but a very different technical design route (quote from their website: "<i>Return to the glory days of fantasy with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game. Adventure as 1974 intended you to, with modern rules grounded in the origins of sword &amp; sorcery.</i>").<br /><a name='more'></a>First impressions first:<br /><ul><li>There is a lot of B/W artwork in the game... and I really mean <i>a lot</i>. Which I generally like, especially since many of the famous TSR artists from yonder golden times are on board... Jim Holloway, Erol Otis, etc. And "newer" artists like Pete Mullen show that they absolutely can be on par with the old giants of the hobby. So I really love most of the art although sometimes I find the differences in style too strong and sometimes it's even for me too much art... something I never would have thought I'd say. While there are a few "funnies" too much for my taste I absolutely had forgotten how much I love the artwork of Jeff Easley... if I ever have the budget for that I definitely would have him to the inner artwork for 'The Fantasy Game' together with Jim Holloway. At least large parts.</li><li>The DCC RPG dicewise takes a contrary approach to 'The Fantasy Game': All the standard polyhedrals are used and you also will need d3, d5, d7, d16 and what not. Which reminds me of a comment on this blog from D.H. Boggs regarding the success of <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/from-cover-to-cover-introduction-scope.html#comments">D&amp;D due to its application of polyhedral dice</a>. I am really curious to see how the choice of dice will affect the success of the DCC RPG as I wonder whether D&amp;D hit the right mark with its six dice types or more even today is better. 'The Fantasy Game' definitely will take the opposite route and just apply d6... so much I have decided for me internally.</li><li>The game has a pretty detailed system with many modifiers and rules. Thus I would see it rather as an "AD&amp;D that might have been" than "a D&amp;D that might have become". In general I find the DCC RPG far more similar to <a href="http://www.kenzerco.com/index.php?cPath=25_94">HackMaster</a> than any of the OD&amp;D clones. Hopefully Kenzer &amp; Company didn't take too long with finishing HackMaster 5th Edition as I would hate so see that game and company fail due to Goodman Games' DCC RPG, which IMHO caters to a similar gamer type.</li><li>The whole skill system is remarkably "almost not existant" and in some respects feel similar to <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/06/ability-tests-in-od.html">my approach for 'The Fantasy Game'</a>. Usually I like more elaborate skill systems but in an old school game this is highly acceptable and I applaud them for their choice.</li><li>Thief skills use percentages which I find totally stupid. There really is no need to have two different skill systems at the same time. Ever.</li><li>There are lots of critical hit and fumble tables. Which I theoretically always like but except for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth_Role_Playing">MERP</a> never found as much fun when playing as they seemed in theory. So this is something I really would need to test. And <a href="http://www.kenzerco.com/index.php?cPath=25_26">HackMaster 4th Edition</a> still has the cooler d10.000 based critical hit table ;-)</li><li>Magic is ruled by many tables... there is one table per spell for highly varied effects and there are fumble tables, etc. Sounds brutal in theory and I don't think I would want that but rather would prefer one general kind of "wild magic table" or so. Again something that needs to be tested.</li></ul>So much for first impressions. I have not yet played the game and most probably won't play it in the near future. My stomach tells me I still prefer the HackMaster approach if looking for old school feel with more complex rules but as HackMaster 5th edition is only out as a basic version I will have to wait with a final judgement.<br /><br />At least Goodman Games need to be recommended for trying a very different approach to old school gaming and I wish them all the best. My stomach tells me that the final result will not be my cup of tea but I will buy the final game in any case if just for all the great artwork.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-16783876644588822942011-06-08T01:59:00.000-07:002011-06-08T02:00:30.834-07:00New reference material added: Forbidden Lore & Consolidated OD&D rulesI just added two new references to the <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/p/references.html">references section of this blog</a>:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://members.cox.net/brucemohler/dnd/odnd.html">Original Dungeons &amp; Dragons Consolidated Rules</a>&nbsp;by Bruce Mohler</li><li><a href="http://www.grey-elf.com/dnd/Forbidden_Lore.pdf">Forbidden Lore</a>&nbsp;by Jason Vey, which nicely describes a way to integrate Chainmail with OD&amp;D - together with the resources mentioned above by D. H. Boggs I will consolidate the Chainmail based combat rules for 'The Fantasy Game'</li></ul>I'm probably soon going to jump around a bit more in the LBB as I am itching to get to the combat section of the game. The goal here is primarily to have a playable rule set as soon as possible and the combat rules are the most pressing (and missing) part right now. Since I do not have any experience with Chainmail I will have to do quite some research. The goal here will be to present a more or less unified combat ruleset closely matching the intention of Chainmail. More soon...Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-30112819049627714052011-06-06T03:55:00.000-07:002011-06-06T03:55:36.700-07:00First layout impression: AbilitiesSince I have been writing on the actual rules for some time now I just wanted to give you a quick expression of the layout of a single page: Here's the intro to the abilities in the game.<br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HgdHT5ZG-2w/Teyw9JgHDpI/AAAAAAAAANA/7d-yQDYPyKw/s1600/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Abilities.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HgdHT5ZG-2w/Teyw9JgHDpI/AAAAAAAAANA/7d-yQDYPyKw/s400/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Abilities.jpg" width="281" /></a></div>The basic layout assumes a DIN-A5 format (not quite the old format but more suitable for <a href="http://www.lulu.com/">Lulu</a> where I intend to publish this with print on demand). The fonts should be similar to the LBB, the layout is slightly different:<br /><ul><li>The main text is broken up with more images. I'm a big fan of game art (and be it for pure inspirational value - I know I spent hours and hours just looking at the pictures of the red box D&amp;D edition and dreaming of what might be or might have been). Thus 'The Fantasy Game' will have a minimum of one piece of art per double page, hopefully most of the time relevant. By now I have purchased a collection of several thousand stock art pieces, so there should be ample choice.</li><li>The main text is accompanied by sidebars facing the outside of the pages. These sidebars contain explanations, intricate details for OSR researchers and other things that do not really belong into the main text. It will be perfectly possible to just read the main body - only if you care for designer thoughts, historical remarks, the occasional rules option and other exotic stuff the sidebars should be of interest to you.</li></ul>Comments welcome.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-14615540308682865042011-06-06T03:34:00.000-07:002011-06-06T03:34:44.805-07:00Minor progress today: Blog alterations & charismatic player characters in the game<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-79CToMhw0MM/TeytIEUN0tI/AAAAAAAAAM8/Q5neyq28BrQ/s1600/TCP+Armored+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-79CToMhw0MM/TeytIEUN0tI/AAAAAAAAAM8/Q5neyq28BrQ/s1600/TCP+Armored+2.jpg" /></a></div>Today I only did minor work on 'The Fantasy Game' (it's once more <a href="http://www.gaiagamma.com/">Gaia Gamma time</a> ;-) ). First of all I adjusted the blog design a little bit: The blog description at the top is gone and has been moved into a text box to the right (in order to allow for a more compelling status update structure on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/thomas.biskup">Facebook</a>).<br /><br />Secondly and more importantly I have done some minor work on 'The Fantasy Game', too, despite this being a Gaia Gamma day.<br /><a name='more'></a>Specifically I have toyed with the Charisma adjustments for hirelings. The original rules are pretty tough in this (and IMHO neither make much sense nor are much fun - a good reason to alter them and provide a sidebar comment explaining the change).<br /><br />So what's the problem (in my humble opinion). The original rules limit the number of hirelings (exceptional and unusual followers like leveled characters or monsters) to 4 (for a charisma score of 10-12), 5 (for a score of 13-15), 6 (for a score of 16-17) and <b>12 (!)</b> for a score of 18.<br /><br />I find this disturbing in two ways:<br /><ol><li>First of all it's very hard to get an 18 in charisma, so providing a big bonus for that rare score IMHO does not make too much sense. It's like providing some kind of super power to characters who get an 18 in all scores - almost useless and a waste of space.</li><li>Secondly I do not see any reason why a character with a charisma score of 17 should be limited to half the number of hirelings compared to someone with a charisma score of 18. No other ability in the original rules makes just a leap in effects from 17 to 18.</li></ol>Thus 'The Fantasy Game' will use slightly modified numbers:<br /><ul><li>A score of 10-12 yields a maximum number of 4 followers.</li><li>A score of 13-15 yields a maximum number of 6 followers.</li><li>A score of 16-17 yields a maximum number of 9 followers.</li><li>A score of 18 yields a maximum number of 12 followers.</li></ul>The progression is much nicer and coupled with the much better loyality bonusses of higher charisma scores, the 18 score still is very powerful, but no longer so one-sided.<br /><br />Interestingly this blog post now is much longer than what I actually wrote for 'The Fantasy Game' today - so it's obviously time to get back to either 'The Fantasy Game' as a ruleset or Gaia Gamma ;-)<br /><br />Read ya!Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-35435537790835153682011-06-05T03:25:00.000-07:002011-06-05T03:25:53.775-07:00Ability Tests in OD&D<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XdqvFWiNAOs/TetZZBxYU1I/AAAAAAAAAMw/fJ9ubLH4obs/s1600/004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XdqvFWiNAOs/TetZZBxYU1I/AAAAAAAAAMw/fJ9ubLH4obs/s1600/004.jpg" /></a></div>As far as I can see so far (remember - I am reading the LBB from front to back completely for the first time in my life) OD&amp;D does not contain any actual rules for ability tests and the like. This is something I am going to elaborate slightly for 'The Fantasy Game'.<br /><a name='more'></a>I am going to use a rule that I view a natural extension of the character creation rule. Since abilities are determined by rolling 3d6 (or 4d6, take the three best under my modified rules) I will use 3d6 to roll ability tests. The natural distribution of 3d6 makes high ability scores a lot more valuable than average ones. If you are interested in a little statistics, you can find some <a href="http://gamesandgadgets.org/theblogs/perrol/dice-odds-for-3d6/">details about the differences between d20 and 3d6 here</a>.<br /><br />So here is the basic outline for ability tests in 'The Fantasy Game':<br /><ul><li>Roll 3d6. If the resulting score is equal to or less than the ability score in question the test succeeds.</li><li>A roll of 3 always succeeds.</li><li>A roll of 18 always fails.</li><li>I'm pondering to introduce a rule for critical success or failure if all three dice show the same result (e.g. it's a critical success if all three dice show the same result and the roll is a success, it's a critical failure if all three dice show the same result and the roll is a failure).</li><li>Modifiers are either +1 or -1 for minor advantages or disadvantages and +4 or -4 for major advantages or disadvantages.</li></ul>Ability tests in 'The Fantasy Game' are used for raw ability tests (e.g. rolling a strength test in order to break down a door), raw talent tests (e.g. rolling a dexterity test in order to climb a tree) and skill tests (e.g. trying to sneak past a guard). Note that 'The Fantasy Game' will not include any kind of skill system... the viability of a skill test is determined by the referee who needs to judge its merits based on the race, background, profession and experience of the character attempting the feat. Totally free form. There might be optional side notes for referees who want more detail but there won't be much more than a few lines of additional advice.<br /><br />Oh, and I forgot to talk about why I did not consider using a d20 for the ability tests: I'm still bound to make 'The Fantasy Game' a "d6 only" game as it seems to me very appropriate for one of the early games to no put up hindrances in the form of weird dice. This also fits nicely to the Chainmail combat system. Thus using 3d6 for ability tests seemed to be very natural.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-51093650487574555892011-06-04T05:44:00.000-07:002011-06-04T05:44:25.238-07:00On the origin of divisional tongues...Just something I started wondering about... does anybody know what inspired the introduction of divisional tongues? E.g. languages for the various alignment factions? The concept of a language of "Law" versus a language of "Neutrality" versus a language of "Chaos" in that strict division seems somewhat strange to me. It kind of implies an overarching religious or metaphysical concept, even stronger than in the books of Michael Moorcock (I don't remember seeing any aligned tongues in those books) which seems rather strange for a game that otherwise has almost no hints about the way religions might work.<br /><br />So, any takers for literary examples that might have influenced the original rules in presenting such a strange special case?Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-63919913154719903442011-06-04T01:34:00.000-07:002011-06-04T01:34:03.899-07:00About languages (Reading OD&D from cover to cover)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JBxRa0ixCRY/TenteELUtsI/AAAAAAAAAMs/_utyTK1M70I/s1600/M-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JBxRa0ixCRY/TenteELUtsI/AAAAAAAAAMs/_utyTK1M70I/s1600/M-3.jpg" /></a></div>One thing that bewilders me while reading the little brown books is the comparative detail given to languages - at least when comparing the language section to other parts of the rules.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>The section on languages is not really long, a mere 13 lines, but that's a lot more than how to change classes, what alignment means, how spellbooks work (or spell slots at all), how characters advance, etc. combined. I'm not sure whether it is a hint at how far ranging campaigns already were in those days (why would you care for a continental common tongue if your characters were constrained to a single dungeon?). I am fascinated once more by this aspect since it seems to fit rather well to later rules in the LBB like sea travel, etc. It also hints at the amount of creativity in those early days... no waiting for special rulebooks for sea travel or space trips there ;-)<br /><br />Given the fact that characters can gain followers by subduing monsters or hiring unusual character types, it makes a lot of sense to have other tongues, but this common tongue thing really makes me wonder how far and wide characters commonly travelled in the early days.<br /><br />From what little I know about the ancient <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmoor">Blackmoor</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Greyhawk">Greyhawk</a> campaigns there seem to have been vast differences, Blackmoor mostly being restrained to the vicinities of the holdings of the same name while Greyhawk early on seems to have included wild trips to exotic locations (a story of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robilar">Robilar</a> being <a href="http://ulmo.mux.net/greyhawk/robilar.html">teleported to the other side of the planet</a> and having to return comes to mind).<br /><br />So in summary I again love how a tiny rule opens up the imagination for a whole range of adventures vastly surpassing the rather limited scenery of a single dungeon - even though it might have been a mega dungeon.<br /><br />BTW, the LBB additionally provide rules for alignment languages for the three given alignments and grant knowledge of one additional language per point of intelligence above 10 (interestingly using the term "one language for every point above <i>10 intelligence factors</i>"). Does anybody have any idea where this <i>factor</i> term comes from? Is it something being used in wargaming circles or just a stray term?Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-23707694940578059542011-06-03T07:36:00.000-07:002011-06-03T07:36:13.254-07:00Looking for a name for volume I of 'The Fantasy Game'I'm plodding steadily ahead with volume I of 'The Fantasy Game'. Yesterday I finished the first version of the first page inside the covers (but don't fret - many other more important parts also have long been written ;-) ) and here it is:<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uz37L71QTVw/TejwZIKqlkI/AAAAAAAAAMo/jtJWEME6ELs/s1600/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Manual+I.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uz37L71QTVw/TejwZIKqlkI/AAAAAAAAAMo/jtJWEME6ELs/s400/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Manual+I.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Now for the difficult question: I do not really like 'Swords &amp; Spells' - although I couldn't give a specific reason. Maybe it's just too far away from 'Men &amp; Magic'... who knows. So I hereby ask for input - win yourself a place in the credits for 'The Fantasy Game' and suggest a decent title for volume I. I'm open for all suggestions posted here!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And BTW... <b><a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/free-product-swack-for-blog-followers.html">you still can get free print issues of 'The Fantasy Game'</a></b> once it is finished - just follow this blog via the button to the right!&nbsp;</div>Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-7336334884843901892011-06-03T03:23:00.000-07:002011-06-03T03:23:42.512-07:00OD&D: A matter of language<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YpU-SwbIR8o/Teix8x8SPNI/AAAAAAAAAMk/ItZxa2emD04/s1600/MI01D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YpU-SwbIR8o/Teix8x8SPNI/AAAAAAAAAMk/ItZxa2emD04/s1600/MI01D.jpg" /></a></div>Although the past week has been pretty silent as far as postings go I have made some pretty good progress actually writing down more of the rules of 'The Fantasy Game'. Volume I is shaping up pretty nicely. While writing the rules I noticed a thing about the way the rules language has changed from the very early times to more current editions... in a way which to me takes away a bit of the flavor inherent in the ancient rules. I'm not sure if I feel this way just because English is not my native language or if there is more to it but today I would like to elaborate a bit on this observation.<br /><a name='more'></a>While writing the rules I specifically noticed that many words being used in OD&amp;D quickly seem to have dropped out of the gaming dictionary to be replaced by others. While this might not seem surprising and rather natural for a newly evolving game genre I find many of the older words to be quite charming and enticing as they help me to get into a peculiar mindset when trying to experience the early times of our hobby.<br /><br />Below is a small list (that probably will grow while I dig deeper into the original manuals) of words I found particularly compelling:<br /><ul><li>There is no game master or dungeon master. It's just the <u>referee</u>. Which I like particularly as it also provides a feeling of the more challenge oriented style of games of he early days in which overcoming challenges was still the prime goal and roleplaying happened more by coincidence (which is not a bad thing if you consider the many famous and ancient characters from the very first campaigns). It also implies the rather tough atmosphere as a referee is much more an impartial judge than a dungeon master might be, the latter being tasked with creating a compelling and enticing story while the former primarily takes care of being an impartial judge.</li><li>There are no attributes. Instead the characteristics we have grown so accustomed to are called <u>abilities</u>. I already <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/reading-od-from-cover-to-cover_22.html">blogged about the difference in terminology</a> and won't repeat myself here. BTW there are several other terms being used throughout OD&amp;D (like categories which also is very interesting implying an even stronger connection between character classes and abilities than you might expect just from the prime requisite rules), but abilities is the term used most consistently.</li><li>Character classes had not yet been invented (as a term). Instead <u>character types</u> is being used. Personally 'type' seems to be less restrictive to me than 'class' (probably due to my Java &nbsp;background and thinking of inheritance) so I again really like the older term.</li><li>Roleplaying is not yet an established term. <u>Fantasy wargaming</u> is the task of the day. In this respect I probably would prefer the newer term as wargaming for me is much too centered on the tabletop aspect. On the other hand the introduction of <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/od-manual-i-from-cover-to-cover-forward.html">OD&amp;D makes it very clear that campaigning is the real sweet spot of the game</a> and so I am willing to live with this term.</li><li>Dice abbreviations had not yet been invented, so there is no d6, d8 or whatever. Most of the time the rules spell out to "<u>roll six sided dice</u>" or just "roll the dice" (which can be confusing at times for newbies as it is not always obvious that e.g. twenty sided dice where meant instead of six sided ones). But again I like the more unwieldy way of stating the rules instead of the more polished and more technical notation of later editions. Probably because right now I'm still heading for a "six sided dice only" game - I see the point that the use of many and variety dice pretty would cause this heavy handed terminology to become unwieldy and very hard to read.</li></ul>These are the examples I managed to procure from roughly the first 40% of volume I of OD&amp;D - more will surely follow. Why have I been thinking so much about those few words?<br /><br />Because I feel that they create atmosphere (as far as OSR research goes) and help to get into the mindset of early games. Due to these feelings 'The Fantasy Game' will try to use the older and less well-known terminology as much as possible. That's why I am today rambling so much about it ;-)<br /><br />More hints for "words of the ancients" are very welcome - I will not be surprised if I missed some as it really took some time to notice the ability/attribute difference at all, so accustomed is this writer to the newer terminology ;-)<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(BTW: Image provided by The Forge Studios and created by Pawel Dobosz - used here with permission naturally)</span>Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-71946302132873367402011-05-25T21:20:00.000-07:002011-05-25T21:20:33.707-07:00Explanation of abilities and skills (Reading OD&D from cover to cover)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yMwTh7lvMDY/Td3U4TCVwXI/AAAAAAAAAMg/m8rwQhNdC6w/s1600/TCP+Dwarf+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yMwTh7lvMDY/Td3U4TCVwXI/AAAAAAAAAMg/m8rwQhNdC6w/s1600/TCP+Dwarf+5.jpg" /></a></div>Abilities in OD&amp;D in some respect are well acquainted: strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution and charisma have become landmarks in the way many roleplaying games define characters. At the dawn of time things were slightly different...<br /><a name='more'></a>As mentioned in <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/reading-od-from-cover-to-cover_22.html">a previous post</a> what we call today attributes was named abilities at the beginning of our hobby signifying a much broader way of defining a character.<br /><br />Thus it might be somewhat surprising that the rules for using abilities are extremely... well... almost non-existant in OD&amp;D.<br /><br />First of all the six abilities (sometimes called categories which implies an even broader and stronger connection to classes and their general use) are divided between those that are prime requisites and the rest.<br /><br />The first three attributes are prime requisites for specific classes and have no function at all except for providing characters of the given class with an experience point bonus or penalty. Fighting-men use strength as their prime requisite, magic-users intelligence and clerics wisdom. The bonus is +10% for scores of 15+, +5% for 13-14, -10% for 7-8 and -20% for 6 or less. The text implies some other benefits (e.g. <i>strength will also aid in opening traps and so on</i>) but stating that the rules are sketched at best in this regard still would be flattering.<br /><br />The other abilities provide a modicum of modifiers - constitution affects hit points (+1 for 15+ per die, -1 for 6 or less per die), dexterity affects missile hit bonuses and charisma determines moral, loyality and the number of special followers. Some parts again are extremely sketchy, e.g. a constitution score of 13 to 14 means that the character <i>will withstand adversity</i>. Whatever that means. And for whatever reason this might not apply to constitution scores of 15+.<br /><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All in all the ability scores are surprisingly laid back in the original rules and much less significant than in later editions. Skills so far are not even mentioned. Which gives a total different feel to "roll 3d6 in order" (and variants thereof) as it is not that much a problem of having just about average abilities. In that regard I feel that later editions of the game were badly "scaled upwards" as the designers continuously increased the importance of attributes with very little thought about how to raise them (AD&amp;D 1st edition probably being the prime culprit here). But for 'The Fantasy Game' I like all this. Back to the rules...</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></div>How to use abilities in the game itself is not explained at all (at least not in the abilities section). For 'The Fantasy Game' I want to have definite rules on this. So here we go with some simple definitions:<br /><ul><li>Every character is able to use "common" skills (like climbing, sneaking, etc.).</li><li>For learned common skills (like riding, swimming, reading &amp; writing, etc.) the background and race of the character determine whether he can use them or not.</li><li>For special skills (carpentry, siegecraft, herbalism, hunting, navigation, etc.) the background story of the character determines whether he has any knowledge in those skills or not.</li><li>I will probably introduce a "roll three six sided dice against the relevant ability score in order to be successful at a task" as a mechanism in 'The Fantasy Game'. Typically modified by something like -4 ("damn hard") to +4 ("pretty easy") or higher in extreme situations. And a roll of 3 always succeeds while a roll of 18 always fails. Simple and straight forward.</li></ul>Finally OD&amp;D has some comments about applying non-prime requisites to determine the experience bonus a character receives. As this section is pretty confusing and in many discussions (IMHO) again governed by preconceptions I will discuss it explicitly in one of the next posts.<br /><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">(BTW: The image to the top right is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, copyright by Jeff Preston.)</span></i>Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-72444179886595082292011-05-23T20:37:00.000-07:002011-05-23T20:37:15.307-07:00Rolling abilities (Reading OD&D from cover to cover)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YA-4-WsWNIU/TdkFmBZV3zI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/oOS-WQNWw2o/s1600/earthmover+bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YA-4-WsWNIU/TdkFmBZV3zI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/oOS-WQNWw2o/s1600/earthmover+bw.jpg" /></a></div>The rolling of abilities in OD&amp;D is extremely straightforward:<br /><ul><li>The referee rolls for the abilities.</li><li>The referee rolls 3d6 in order.</li></ul>That's it.<br /><a name='more'></a>Interestingly the forefathers of our hobby seem to have started disliking this rather hard approach to gaming pretty quickly which in the end resulted in house rules that made it much easier to start with higher ability scores. If you look at the character sheets of the characters played by Gary Gygax and his companions in the early days, you quite often will note, that many of them had pretty high ability scores... so high that they must either have used special dice or rolled quite often. Something we did, too (rolling very often I mean) when we started roleplaying.<br /><br />Since this behavior can be seen so often it only seems appropriate to change the rules right away. Thus for 'The Fantasy Game' I will provide two rules variants at various stages of the rules: a realistic set (which basically defaults to the original rules as written in most cases) and a heroic set (which gives various advantages to the player characters). Important to me is that the heroic set of rules is derived from the house rules of the original designers (hey, I pretend having talked to Mr. G. in the spring of 1975 in order to get clarifications on his stuff in the little brown books - so this seems to be appropriate).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/getting-started-with-fantasy-game.html">As mentioned</a> before I will rely on the collected and known house rules used by Gary Gygax for this. <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/03/gary-gygaxs-whitebox-od-house-rules.html">Cyclopeatron and Robert Fisher</a> avidly collected them - thus 'The Fantasy Game' will use the following rules for rolling abilities:<br /><ul><li>Realistic ability determination uses "3d6, six times, in order". Although I will allow the players to roll for their characters by default as implied in my posting on <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/on-bondage-in-od.html">bondage in OD&amp;D</a>.</li><li>Heroic ability determination will use the house rules of Gary Gygax <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/03/gary-gygaxs-whitebox-od-house-rules.html">described here</a> - which means: roll 4d6 six times and always take the best three scores. Match the scores in any order you like to the abilities.</li></ul>Each referee then can decide whether they are going to use the realistic or heroic approach and whether the player or the referee is going to roll. And if you don't like the options, just invent your own.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-43047558157285860212011-05-22T22:41:00.000-07:002011-05-23T13:06:53.584-07:00Researching OD&D at the OD&D discussion boards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VSmaQnCq4_c/TdnzZbL8uAI/AAAAAAAAAMU/9oVNBsSsCh0/s1600/common+bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VSmaQnCq4_c/TdnzZbL8uAI/AAAAAAAAAMU/9oVNBsSsCh0/s1600/common+bw.jpg" /></a></div><i>[After posting this stuff in the morning I added a few more links in the evening that I missed during the first run due to some browser tabs I had overlooked]</i><br /><br />In the past couple of weeks I had a lot of fun reading through the various postings at the <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/">OD&amp;D discussion boards</a> (and I'm still going strong). I find the comments there very helpful in getting into the right mindset for reading the little brown books and to get sensitive about the finer formulations used in the rules.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>While I try to avoid loose interpretations and house rules of players I occasionally find stuff that brings my view of OD&amp;D in 1975 into the right angle. Getting rid of preconceptions is a rather tough task. One such instance was <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/research-od-magic-users-in-arms-and.html">the case about arms and armor for wizards</a> and therefor I dedicate todays post to a number of threads that still might become important in future posts in this blog as I venture ahead into the more complex details of OD&amp;D. So here is a collection of interesting threads for your enjoyment and as a marker for me to get back to at a later point.<br /><br /><a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&amp;board=menmagic&amp;thread=4378&amp;page=1">This thread</a> contains some discussion about the <b>number of players in OD&amp;D campaigns</b>, which nicely fits <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_601530981">my discussion of the </a><i><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_601530981">Recommended Equipment</a></i><a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/from-cover-to-cover-introduction-scope.html"> section</a>.<br /><br />Here we have <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3392">some more discussion</a> of <b>wizards in armor</b>, which nicely contradicts <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/research-od-magic-users-in-arms-and.html">my comments</a> :-) <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2652">Here</a> you can find more of that stuff.<br /><br /><a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1518">Here</a> we find some interesting remarks about <b>clerics having to choose between Law and Chaos</b> at level seven. I already <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/reading-od-from-cover-to-cover.html">commented on this</a> and don't see any problem with clerics having to choose. Specifically I have to disagree for now with the posters about the rules being unclear about the fact of whether clerics might have to be neutral or not - clearly they can be of that alignment (as I so far have not found any place contradicting this and as otherwise the rule about having to choose Law or Chaos wouldn't make any sense at all). But even more important in that thread seem to be the comments about <b>the differences in OD&amp;D printings</b>, which seem to be far greater than I had expected. Currently I seem to own <a href="http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/original.html">a sixth edition printing</a>&nbsp;(according to the <a href="http://www.acaeum.com/">Acaeum</a>) and I wonder if there is any legal and simple way to acquire earlier editions as PDF left? As far as I understand the removed PDF versions also were sixth edition versions?<br /><br />People discuss the <b>classes</b> <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1676">being used in the first campaigns</a>, <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=322">the evolution of classes</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=372">magic-users at first level</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3542">Here</a> is some interesting discussion on <b>playing non-standard races</b>, as well as <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1841">here</a> with ideas for balrogs as player characters. While I doubt that I will add much detail to the rules in 'The Fantasy Game' concerning this I find the discussion inspiring.<br /><br />There are remarks about the various rulings concerning <b>abilities</b>, e.g. to be able to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_601531070">withstand adversity</a><a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2270"> with a constitution of 13-14</a>&nbsp;(also <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=404">here</a>), the <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=335">use of non-combat statistics</a>&nbsp;or <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=986">mental stats</a>, <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2111">experience bonuses for high ability scores</a>, <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=409">ability bonuses</a>&nbsp;(which I will 'fix' using <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/03/gary-gygaxs-whitebox-od-house-rules.html">Garys house rules</a>), <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=352">trading ability points</a> and <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=325">3d6 in order</a>.<br /><br />Then there are some foggy rules parts in OD&amp;D concerning <b>languages</b>, which folks try to clarify <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1845">here</a>.<br /><br />There are various postings about <b>skill systems in OD&amp;D</b>, such as <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2754">this</a>, <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=442">this</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2655">this</a>. The basic approach for 'The Fantasy Game' has already been laid out in <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/reading-od-from-cover-to-cover_22.html">my comments on abilities versus attributes</a> but I will come back to those points when finalizing the rules on ability tests.<br /><br />An important area seems to be the discussion of <b>experience charts and advancement</b> - something I'm getting to in the near future. <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=5339">This thread</a> extrapolates experience points and tries to get rid of some of the more confusing parts of level progression. Additionally <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1041">various quirks of the tables</a> are discussed like <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=955"><b>hit point progression</b></a>&nbsp;(also <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=394">here</a>&nbsp;and this one about <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=370">rerolling hit points</a>, like <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=419">this one</a>), <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=339">hit points at first level</a>, <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=328">high level characters in the initial campaigns</a> and <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=419">hit point progressions analyzed</a>.<br /><br />Personally I like <b>level titles</b> a lot and here are other <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3087">chiming in</a>, with additional useful remarks about the place of 1st level <b>fighting-men</b>.<br /><br />Here is some <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3533">interesting discussion</a> of the <b>attack matrices</b>. While I still believe that I am going to use the <a href="http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/setpages/chainmail.html">Chainmail rules</a> looking at them won't hurt.&nbsp;<a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3016">Here</a> you can find a lot more comments about <b>pre-supplemental 1 combat</b> which interests me greatly but needs to be read when I get to those parts. This is supplemented by <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2656">discussion about base attack bonuses</a> for fighting-men across the various editions of D&amp;D. In any case the <b>integration of Chainmail</b> into the rules is a <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=351">point of discussion</a>&nbsp;again and again, also <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1023">here</a>&nbsp;and <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=437">here (2d6 combat)</a>. <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=407">Chainmail heroes and superheroes</a> are discussed, too, as well as the effects of <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=373">using Chainmail for elves</a>.<br /><br />There is some <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3257">discussion</a> about the <b>high mortality rate of starting characters</b>, which I will address later on by providing an option for starting at higher levels, derived from <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2010/03/gary-gygaxs-whitebox-od-house-rules.html">Gary Gygax' house rules</a>. The <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2017">discussion of heroic character generation</a> nicely supports my own idea.<br /><br />Then there is some discussion about spells, e.g. the <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=2009">literal use of Protection from Evil</a> (which I am very interested in).<br /><br /><a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=3695">This <b>errata collection</b></a> needs to be analyzed with a lot of care (which I will postpone for later).<br /><br />Finally there are some threads about the implied <b>discrimination of halflings</b> in OD&amp;D: <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=4639">This one</a> resolves around hobbits not being able to be raised from the dead with the spell of the same name. Here is more <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=1143">hobbit/halfling advocacy</a>. But there also is some nice round-up about the <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=menmagic&amp;action=display&amp;thread=406">facts about hobbits</a>.<br /><br />And this is just the cream on the top, there so much more interesting stuff that I only managed to filter by focussing on the little brown books and nothing else. Enjoy - you will see me getting back to this stuff quite often.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-73339988599262809072011-05-22T00:40:00.000-07:002011-05-22T00:43:56.579-07:00Reading OD&D from cover to cover: Abilities versus attributes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oHdtZrEzDc4/Tdi9yLha0-I/AAAAAAAAAMM/m6aJtrOsqGI/s1600/001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oHdtZrEzDc4/Tdi9yLha0-I/AAAAAAAAAMM/m6aJtrOsqGI/s1600/001.jpg" /></a></div>In my second to last post about attributes I made a mistake resulting from preconceptions created by later editions of the game: I called strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution and charisma attributes instead of abilities. While this might seem to be a minor point at first I now believe (after some thinking) that it is one of those essential tiny points that really characterize OD&amp;D (and the OSR).<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>Why is this so?<br /><br />The word "attributes" has a far more limited meaning than "abilities". Attributes are some characterizing marks of the characters you are creating. Abilities are about everything the character can do.<br /><br />So this implicitly answers the skill system discussion: While I personally am a big fan of skill systems in xD&amp;D (and love the way they were done in AD&amp;D 2nd Edition) OD&amp;D here is very clear to me: Your abilities are described by the six ratings that you roll for. Everything else is made up by the referee, your characters background, etc.<br /><br />So 'The Fantasy Game' will revert to calling them abilities instead of attributes and there will be some handwaving comments about how to handle specialized abilities (everything from siegecraft to carpentry).Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-3729849655795231052011-05-19T21:35:00.000-07:002011-05-19T21:35:56.956-07:00On bondage in OD&D<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-glFMzCmLjVM/TdXvmcihvoI/AAAAAAAAAMI/Z9cqoJVn1CU/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-glFMzCmLjVM/TdXvmcihvoI/AAAAAAAAAMI/Z9cqoJVn1CU/s200/26.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Todays post will intercept the discussion of attributes in OD&amp;D with some thoughts and questions about how much players and player characters tended to 'bond' in campaigns played in ancient times. And no, I don't mean <i>that</i> type of bondage but the title was too cool to resist ;-)<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>After yesterdays post about <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/reading-od-from-cover-to-cover-rolling.html">generating attributes for player characters</a> I asked on the OD&amp;D discussion boards <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&amp;board=menmagic&amp;thread=5795">how others handled this issue</a>. I found the <a href="http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&amp;board=menmagic&amp;thread=5795&amp;page=1#72574">response by Tom Bowings</a>&nbsp;(or actually Ian..) particularly interesting (quoted for your comfort):<br /><blockquote><i>Well, it depends whether you think bonding is a good thing. I tend to have very high mortality games and the players who want/need to have characters in the literary sense of the usually end up dropping out.</i></blockquote>His straightforward and 'brutal' approach rang a bell with me as it made me remember my very early 'roleplaying' games when characters died in scores and we viewed D&amp;D more of a challenge game than intense roleplaying (and please take in mind that I don't want to preach about which way is the better approach - you cater to different tastes).<br /><br />This more brutal approach seems to be pretty well in line with the way I figure the very early campaigns must have started out. Quite often postings describe how campaigns evolved as a battle of wits between the referee and the players and all kind of nasty and evil changes were the talk of the day. I also remember fondly my first Tunnels &amp; Trolls campaign in which characters dropped like flies and we actually introduced an experience point high score to immortalize the fallen. It's a different way to play but this approach can be a lot of fun and I agree with Ian that you shouldn't bond too much with characters for such a campaign because life can be really short.<br /><br />I don't think that the rules for 'The Fantasy Game' will prefer one approach over the other but I would like to hear how you view this. Should characters be planned for a long life time with all the care and detail that this might involve, should this depend on the luck of both the player and the characters during the first few adventures or is character elaboration just something that happens occasionally on the fly?Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-21778722723180848222011-05-18T22:37:00.000-07:002011-05-18T22:37:39.007-07:00Reading OD&D from cover to cover: Rolling attributes (part I) starting with an amazing revelation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dHhP6rOJtFg/TdSsktG3KmI/AAAAAAAAAME/nTKN8ujyICs/s1600/dice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dHhP6rOJtFg/TdSsktG3KmI/AAAAAAAAAME/nTKN8ujyICs/s200/dice.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>By now I am well into writing the sections about attributes for 'The Fantasy Game' and I was kind of suprised by the initial statement in the LBB about the process of doing. So much surprised that I was speechless for a moment as I don't remember seeing that statement in any edition of D&amp;D ever... but maybe that is just my faulty memory. The initial statement in the attributes section is:<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><blockquote><i>Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary <u>for the referee</u> to roll the six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them in selecting a role.</i></blockquote>&nbsp;(underlining mine).<br /><br />I mean... did anyone of you ever use that roll? Did the referee roll the attributes for your character? I mean, except for pregenerated characters for cons and tournament play?<br /><br />I never saw this rule before and I surely never used it in any of my games as I always viewed the process of rolling your characters attributes as one of the sacred rituals solely in the domain of the player. Not doing so myself as a player somehow would have spoiled my character, loosened my attachment and not really have made him mine. I probably feel so strongly about this as the whims of fate (rolling the dice) always have been one of the most exciting aspects of roleplaying games to me, as you never can know what to expect. Not doing so myself for the absolutely central task of generating my character somehow feels wrong to me on every level.<br /><br />Don't misunderstand me. I don't mind doing this in the face of the referee but being relieved of this decisive part of the birthing act? Unimaginable.<br /><br />So the attributes section in OD&amp;D already started nicely with some new insights on the aspect of ancient role-playing. Since I feel so strongly about character generation 'The Fantasy Game' will only provide this as an optional rule and assume that the player rolls the attributes for his character in the presence of the referee.<br /><br />How do you feel about this? Am I alone in this rather strict opinion on how a character should be birthed? Or do you find nothing wrong with using pregenerated stats provided by someone else?Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-48596944392884518902011-05-17T22:31:00.000-07:002011-05-17T22:31:30.206-07:00New cover design attempt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2UGHnwj95AQ/TdF99Zjz4bI/AAAAAAAAAL4/-MXYVNMWMMk/s1600/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Cover+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2UGHnwj95AQ/TdF99Zjz4bI/AAAAAAAAAL4/-MXYVNMWMMk/s200/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Cover+1.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>To the right you find another attempt at designing the cover for 'The Fantasy Game': I have replaced <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/revised-cover-design-for-fantasy-game.html">the classic knight from the initial attempt</a> with a new kind of knight, who is somewhat more fantastic. In any case the image also is more vivid and dynamic... what do you think?<br /><br />Personally I have become somewhat accustomed to <a href="http://www.thefantasygame.org/2011/05/revised-cover-design-for-fantasy-game.html">the classic knight</a>&nbsp;(yeah, I already cal it a "classic" ;-) ). It has kind of grown on me and now I miss it :-) To me the classic knight seems to represent the early days of the hobby in a more appropriate way, even if it seems more Arthurian that alternatives.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a><br />So take one more look and compare them directly:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6XOVwnrOMS8/TdNZbXb3jPI/AAAAAAAAAL8/ABtHjEmX9u8/s1600/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Cover+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6XOVwnrOMS8/TdNZbXb3jPI/AAAAAAAAAL8/ABtHjEmX9u8/s200/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Cover+1.jpg" width="140" /></a></div>&nbsp;<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3eWVOWN0IlA/TdNZcKeQ2WI/AAAAAAAAAMA/1b7irKqzRGg/s1600/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Cover+1a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3eWVOWN0IlA/TdNZcKeQ2WI/AAAAAAAAAMA/1b7irKqzRGg/s200/The+Fantasy+Game+-+Cover+1a.jpg" width="140" /></a><br /><br />Which one do you like better? Or would you like to see something totally different?Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7748717096127069765.post-22342981438935127642011-05-16T22:42:00.000-07:002011-05-16T22:42:28.927-07:00Reading OD&D from cover to cover: Changing classes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LGSmR3yDrj8/TdF8jQo1f0I/AAAAAAAAAL0/rcUbLaxX2vk/s1600/TCP+Pirate+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LGSmR3yDrj8/TdF8jQo1f0I/AAAAAAAAAL0/rcUbLaxX2vk/s200/TCP+Pirate+3.jpg" width="188" /></a></div>Before we continue our discussion of elves we look a bit ahead in the rules in order to see what other surprises and detail rules await us. Some might shed new light on certain of the more complex issues we have found with the race descriptions. So next up are the rules for changing classes.<br /><br /><a name='more'></a>The rules actually are pretty short and again I have to marvel at the straight elegance of OD&amp;D:<br /><ul><li>First of all the rules don't recommend to change classes for player types other than elves. But they don't forbid it either. So the referee can decide for his campaign, nice.</li><li>Only men may change classes.</li><li>A prime requisite (not yet explained but you probably know what it is; otherwise wait for one of the next posts) of 16 or better is required in the class your character wants to change to.</li><li>The attribute score must be unmodified, an interesting twist further limiting the proliferation of dual classed character types.</li><li>Magic-users cannot become clerics and vice versa.</li></ul>That's it. To remove some of the rather unclear pieces I would add the following details (derived from previous material):<br /><ul><li>Character types can change their class but once. The reasoning for this limitation is that the rules (read literally) state that elves can switch freely but don't mention that for men. So its seems logical that changing but once was intended.</li><li>Character types can only use their class specific abilities if they abide by the restrictions of the class. Again this can be derived from the elven type for which the description states that elves can combine the benefits for both classes.</li></ul>While it might be a bit stretching to state that men therefor have to be more limited I find it highly appropriate as this nicely balances the unlimited advancement of men.<br /><br />Finally I will clarify the following points:<br /><ul><li>The new class starts at level 1 (as for elves, nothing new here).</li><li>The best bonusses for both classes are used (there is no specific ruling but this seems logical - I don't see any logic in characters forgetting skills from adventure to adventure).</li></ul>And all this explained in but six lines of text in the original rules. Amazing. I love OD&amp;D.Thomas Biskuphttps://plus.google.com/117345223880998632946noreply@blogger.com0